Think We Can’t Legislate Morality? Think Again.

“Most laws of any consequence arise from a moral vision and reflect the moral judgment of the lawmaker,” according to Texas Supreme Court justice Jimmy Blacklock. In the end, “law cannot be separated from moral judgment.”

He penned these words in his June 2024 concurrence in a case that upheld a state ban on certain medical treatments for children experiencing gender dysphoria. A member of an evangelical church in Austin, Blacklock explained that the debate at the heart of the case was moral, not primarily legal or even factual. The case was ultimately a conflict between “competing visions of the human person,” a “disagreement [that] is one of philosophy, morality, and even religion.” His opinion exposes one of the most contentious—and often misunderstood—issues of our day, namely the role of religiously based morality in crafting civil law.

In The Crisis of Civil Law: What the Bible Teaches About Law and What It Means Today, Australian law professor Benjamin B. Saunders seeks to “recover the historic understanding of the Christian tradition regarding the law” to help Christians to think about civil law and the moral judgments the law reflects (3). For those who have not thought much about the relationship between Scripture and the civil law, this book serves as a clear and concise introduction. It’s also a helpful entry point for understanding the “Christian Nationalism” discussion that has recently gained steam.

Saunders argues “the most significant principle of the Christian view of the law is that humans are subject to the moral law, given by God,” which “consists of the unchanging and universally applicable obligations owed by all people as a rule of conduct by virtue of their creation in God’s image” (9–10). This moral law is codified in the Ten Commandments but can be known by humans apart from Scripture. At the same time, there’s room for creativity and wisdom in how the civil law reflects the moral law (11).

Universal Moral Principles

At the heart of the debate over the civil law is our understanding of the nature of God’s universal moral law. Many Christians, especially in the Reformed tradition, believe that the Ten Commandments summarize God’s moral law. Even without access to the Ten Commandments—even prior to the giving of the Ten Commandments—humans can and do know the substance of the moral law. Cain knew he’d done wrong when he murdered his brother Abel (Gen. 4). Dinah’s brothers knew the rape of their sister was an evil to be avenged (Gen. 34). Children innately know they shouldn’t hit their siblings.

Roman Catholics and many Protestants refer to these moral principles knowable apart from Scripture as natural law. Though natural law is more controversial among Protestants, Christians of all types understand human conscience and creation’s moral order as a source for discerning morality (23–24). Even Immanuel Kant argued that moral law could be understood by reasoning from categorical imperatives—maxims everyone should obey without exception. Whatever the terminology, the concept is largely the same: humankind across time and culture, even without access to Scripture, knows certain things are wrong.

The Ten Commandments provide a summary of God’s moral law. However, as Saunders explains, the commandments’ substance isn’t limited to their words (51). For example, the Ten Commandments don’t specifically forbid either rape or financial fraud. But the immorality of both is obvious from the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments provide a summary of God’s moral law.

As the Westminster Longer Catechism explains, the sixth commandment (murder) prohibits even nonlethal physical harm, the seventh commandment (adultery) forbids all sexual unchastity, the eighth commandment (stealing) requires financial fair dealing, and the ninth commandment (bearing false witness) demands truth telling in all contexts. From these principles, it’s obvious that rape, financial fraud, and a host of other offenses violate God’s moral law even if not specified in the text of the Ten Commandments.

Wisdom in Application

It’s more difficult to determine to what extent God’s moral law should be embedded in civil laws enforced by coercive government force. Saunders says, “The historic Christian view is that the civil law must be based on the universal principles of the moral law” (109). But he also rightly observes that “not all sins should be crimes” (97). We need wisdom to translate the moral law into civil laws appropriate for a particular cultural context (130–31).

Even among Christians who agree on the nature and extent of the moral law, there is significant debate about its application. For example, some Christians argue the whole moral law should be incorporated into civil law. In contrast, Saunders argues against legally enforcing the first four commandments because “governments have no moral right to require a person to do something against his or her conscience” (168). Here, he seems to overstate his case and miss the point of those who’d use government to enforce the whole moral law in society.

We need wisdom to translate the moral law into civil laws appropriate for a particular cultural context.

A common argument for enforcing all ten commandments through civil law is that doing so only requires governing conduct (by, for example, criminalizing blasphemy), not mandating belief. The stated intent of those who hold this view is to curb extreme conduct that would undermine social cohesion. Additionally, we have to remember that conscience isn’t absolute. There are examples of conduct so extreme that the government can and should regulate it, notwithstanding the law’s infringement on sincerely held belief.

A better argument for not enforcing the first four commandments by law is that elected officials aren’t competent to make the doctrinal determinations needed to enforce them. If you think doctrinal orthodoxy is hard to maintain among like-minded believers, imagine the difficulty of maintaining orthodoxy if that obligation is assigned to a body politic composed of disparate religious commitments.

Graciously Navigating Disagreement

Substantial disagreements can exist about the translation of the moral law to a society’s civil laws, even among those who hold the same core creedal commitments, the same view of the inerrancy of Scripture, and the same understanding of the moral law’s applicability in society. For example, Saunders argues rightly that the moral law prohibits the killing of unborn children. The “fundamental role of civil government is to protect the innocent.” Thus it’s “clear” that the “Christian view” is that “civil governments should criminalize abortion except when necessary to save the life of another” (141). At the same time, Saunders argues that faithful Christians may disagree over who (doctor vs. mother) should be viewed as the criminal wrongdoer or whether abortion should be treated as the equivalent of murder (142–43). The way we navigate disagreements on issues of this sort matters.

And even when Christians agree about how the moral law should be translated into civil law, they may disagree about the proper political tactics to bring our shared policy objectives into law. It’s dangerous to confuse a preferred policy approach, much less a tactic for achieving that policy, with the moral law itself. It can lead to accusations of biblical infidelity despite significant agreement, which creates unnecessary division between Christians. I say this as someone with strong views on the way we should criminally prosecute abortion.

Saunders’s argument is a healthy reminder that, in a fallen world, I may misjudge such application and tactical matters. Or my faithful brothers and sisters may misjudge, though they share my moral commitments. We all now see through a glass darkly. And so we should engage one another with charity on issues of application and tactics, rather than eyeing each other with suspicion. On that last day, before the only just Judge, we’ll all need much mercy for our errors. As we seek to live faithfully in these confused times, The Crisis of Civil Law can help Christians do so with grace toward other believers.